Nier: Automata is driving considerable interest on PlayStation 4, and since there's no exclusivity deal in place, many have been wondering whether or not we could see Nier: Automata hit Xbox One in the future. Sadly, it's looking unlikely.
According to Express, Nier: Automata producer Yosuke Saito is blaming the lack of Xbox One interest in Japan for skipping the platform:
"There are currently no plans to release on this platform. The main reason for this is that the Japanese market for Xbox One is not strong, so the decision was made to focus on PlayStation 4 rather than to split our efforts across two platforms."
Saito continued, saying that bypassing the Xbox One allowed them to focus on Nier: Automata's quality, dropping the need to diffuse development across two platforms.
"The biggest benefit to developing on one platform is that we did not have to split our time, allowing us to focus more on the quality. It is not about whether one platform is better than the other, it's that from a development point of view were can devote more time to one platform."
It's easy to speculate that the cancellation of Scalebound might have seen Xbox fall out of favor with Platinum Games, but it's important to note that as Platinum Games is an independent developer, their financial bets are no doubt riskier. Considering the fact there's a PC version in the works, and the fact there are well over 20 million Xbox One consoles out there, it's hard to envision that a port wouldn't be worth the investment for Platinum Games.
Either way, one thing is for certain: it's a damn shame Xbox gamers won't be getting their hands on Nier: Automata any time soon.
Update: As pointed out by various pals on Twitter, Yosuke Saito has previously stated that Platinum Games will consider an Xbox One version based on how well Nier: Automata does on PS4 and PC. We'll just have to wait and see.
Nier: Automata launches on March 7th, 2017 for PlayStation 4 / Pro, with a planned Windows PC version launching sometime in 2017.
